This post was sponsored by Our Schools Now in partnership with Forward Influence. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone. #ad #VoteForQ1
Learn more about the Our Schools Now Initiative coming up for vote in the Utah General Elections and learn how to throw a girl’s night to share something you’re passionate about (without causing arguments).
I’m sad to admit that when I was younger I didn’t do a whole lot of research when it came time to vote. Other than the major candidates, I looked over the ballot and just voted on what I thought was good and called it a day. But now that I have kids and it’s more than just me my vote affects, I have taken more time to be educated on what I’m voting for.
Being a mom and a PTA board member, any question or proposition that involves my kids’ education is extremely important to me. I can see how those initiatives affect my family so I have spent a good amount of time doing research to make sure I’m making the right choice for my family. The one I’m most passionate about in this year’s election is Question 1 on the ballots.
Question 1 is a gas tax that will increase the current tax by 10¢ per gallon. You may be asking yourself why does a gas tax affect education? Well currently the funds from gas tax get split on where it goes. With this new tax, the increased funds will cover general road (i.e. non-highway), and funds that were previously ear-marked towards roads will now be used for education. 30% would be dedicated to local roads and the remaining 70% would be used to offset an equivalent cut in funding for transportation, that would then go toward education.
I was a little confused at first but when I did more research I found that this tax will cost Utah drivers about $4 per month or less than $50 a year. BUT with the increased tax we will be able to put about $101 million back into K-12 education. AND the best part is this money is ONLY used for classrooms and each school can decide how it wants to use the funds (like increasing teacher’s salaries, more money for supplies, newer technology, etc.).
I really like the idea of being able to allow the teachers and schools decide how they want to use the money because as I learned at our Mom’s Night each school’s needs are different. For example, we spent personally about $100 for each of my boys in school supplies for their classrooms. But some of my friends spent less than $10 for each of their kids. So my school might choose to put the money they get towards giving teachers more money for supplies, while my friend’s school might use the money for newer technology or hiring more aids.
It was really nice to get together with friends for a moms night to just chat and relax. We talked about the initiative and were able to have keep things friendly and amicable. I wanted to keep things as simple as possible so I just got soda, sugar cookies and popcorn from our favorite soda shop and gave the gals each a tumbler with a soda gift card. It took me less than 10 minutes to get ready for the party and everyone had a good time.
I felt like starting the night with easy treats that everyone liked and finding a segway into the topic made it feel really natural and didn’t cause anyone to get their feelings hurt or feel like their opinion didn’t matter. We started talking about how happy we all were that school was in full swing and the craziness of back to school time was over which led right into our discussion on the Our Schools Now Initiative.
I also learned it was good to know all the facts before you begin the discussion because you’re friends are going to have some great questions and if you haven’t done your research it will make things a little awkward. And if someone’s opinion is different than your own, that’s totally OK too. When you have these fun nights there are likely going to be differing opinions and what makes them fun and not awkward is when everyone feels like their thoughts and opinions matter.
I’m so glad we had this moms night (even though we stayed up way too late talking) and my feelings toward voting yes on Question 1 on this year’s ballot were strengthened more too! To learn more about Our Schools Now and the Question 1 on the ballot click here.
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